As he said this he crept from under his bush, and broke off a bough covered with thick leaves to hide his nakedness.
[face=spionic]w(j r(u/saito peri\ xroi\ mh/dea fwto/j.[/face] (imagine two dots above the iota in xroi\).

I'm having trouble translating this sentence. I know what it means, but I just can't work out what some of the words mean. I need to translate it exactly and understand why.

Now the construction is ws + opt., but the rest ... uh... xroi is nominative, so peri belongs to light? Please help me!

Autenrieth says [face=spionic]peri\ xroi+/[/face] has the sense of around, covering the body. So I'd take this phrase adverbially, then make [face=spionic]mh/dea fwto/j[/face] the direct object of the verb.

This part of Odyssey is very interesting. The man is naked. He's ashamed to go forth to his "savior". He found himself naked because, in a sense, he ate (he himself didn't but his crew did) what God forbade to eat. --The sin started from his companions and later he sins himself agains the god. He wears leaves and go forth to his savior. The savior gives him a new cloths. He cannot live there because he's still under the wrath of the god, and have to leave the place(And later, the place becomes blocked from futher access). This is quite like the expulsion of Adam and Eve.

Last edited by mingshey on Thu Jan 15, 2004 4:03 am, edited 2 times in total.

Oh, please. I'm not immune to flattery. I've been interested in comparative mythology -- if that's proper name for what it is. Frazer's "Golden Bough" is an excellent work to learn how to relate a myth to what looks at first completely different myth.

There is also some practical purpose : if Odysseus go naked, the girl might be scared and run away (as will the maids do). In this case, there would be no savior anymore. You will see how he will be cautious and try to avoid scaring Nausikaa.

Note : [face=SPIonic]fwto/j[/face] from [face=SPIonic]o( fw/j[/face] "the man" (meaning "male"), not from [face=SPIonic]to\ fw=j[/face] "the light".